New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft made his first public comments since the arrest of now former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on Monday, and the theme was disbelief.

Kraft spoke extensively to beat reporters about Hernandez's situation in his office, including those from ESPNBoston.com and the Boston Globe. He made it clear that his organization was unaware of anything that could have led Hernandez down the path of being charged with the first-degree murder of Odin Lloyd.

"No one in our organization was aware of any of these kind of connections," Kraft said. "If it's true, I'm just shocked ... Our whole organization has been duped."

Kraft believed Hernandez was a "most likeable young man" who was "always polite, respectful." When the Patriots were deciding on whether to draft him in 2010, Kraft noted the organization got a letter from Hernandez pledging that his drug use at the University of Florida would stay in the past.

The way Hernandez owned up to what he had done wrong got the attention of the Patriots' owner as him "taking responsibility."

"The only thing I ever heard on Aaron Hernandez was he was very young, immature and potentially had problems presented in this letter," Kraft said in sharing the letter with reporters. "Never saw signs of anything else."

For Kraft, he recalled Hernandez most for standing behind his pledge and showing up to work hard for the Patriots

"I only know what goes on inside this building. We don’t put private eyes on people,” Kraft said. “When he was in this building, I was never exposed to anything where he was not positive."

Kraft admitted, however, the Patriots made a mistake in misjudging Hernandez off the field, and would take necessary measures to vet players better in the future. He also confirmed the Patriots knew what action they were ready to take with Hernandez before he was arrested.

"Let me be clear, we decided the week prior to Aaron's arrest that if Aaron was arrested in connection with the Lloyd murder case that we would cut him immediately after."

Going forward, Kraft's mind is more with that of the victim than his troubled former player.

"My heart goes out to the Lloyd family," he said. "I feel bad that someone connected to our organization is connected to this."